Developing, Hosting & Funding: 3 Different Approaches

We take a look at three different ways to host and promote your electronics projects.

The hobby electronics industry is really taking off. People from all different geographical locations, all levels of education, and different walks of life are producing electronics at a surprising rate. I'm not talking about big-name manufacturing here, I'm talking about your neighbor doing a small run of 30 custom lighting controllers for his balcony.

One issue that I've seen over and over is that people aren't sure how to host these projects and connect with others about them. You can always just toss them on eBay, but who would know to look for them? What if you want to collaborate? Conversely, you could plop them on something like Instructibles, but what if you wanted to sell some? What if someone wanted to donate to your project? There is an obvious need here, and several sites are rising up to fill this void.

Lets discuss three of them. Each has a different approach to a similar problem. There will not be a ranking or winner here, as many people will find aspects of each of these to be more appealing than the others based on their project and goals. These three sites are specifically for electronics/DIY projects as opposed to sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Instructibles, which have no focus in terms of category.

Suprmasv

HWTrek

Tindie

Continue on to the next page to begin learning about how they're similar and how different they are.

This article contains some really important insight into the worlds of hacking, crowdfunding and retail of other people's projects. Each of these companies follows its own unique model and could easily inspire others to either follow suit or forge their own path.